Jayachandra Sunkara is on speed dial for many of IIIT Hyderabad’s senior faculty. In recognition of his unwavering commitment and contributions, he was honored with the IIITH Outstanding Service Award 2023.
An alumnus of the exuberant 2000 batch, Jayachandra Sunkara’s unassuming demeanor, razor-sharp mind and networking skills went into conceptualizing the Alumni Fund and framework of the IIITH Alumni Foundation.
A lesser known fact is that it was Sunkara who came up with several options of the repayment models for the Alumni Fund, when Prof. Jayanthi Sivaswamy reached out to him. His inputs would help shape the SPEC program, a concept that he drove through an interesting presentation deck that he prepared for new applicants with a Telugu-speaking background, who needed that nudge.
The IIM-B alumnus has a rare and very diverse set of skills, from core software engineering to fintech and finally to his passion as a gentleman-farmer. Through all his explorations, he credits his gung-ho attitude to his formative years in IIIT Hyderabad, that groomed him to transcend social constructs and mental boundaries.
After his B.Tech in CSE from IIIT Hyderabad, he joined Computer Associates and as a side hustle, worked for an open source organization, to translate designs to code. “I reflected that since software engineering and coding was anyway in my blood, I could always come back to it”. He worked in an environmental consultancy firm, before pursuing his MBA at IIM Bangalore. After brief stints in investment banking, consultancy and the educational sector, he finally looped back to his core competency in software product development.
The alumnus joined Microsoft in 2009 and grew to a Senior Program Manager. From 2015, he has worked with Amazon Hyderabad and rose to ranks of a Software Engineering Leader. In between, after spending couple of years in Amazon Seattle, USA he returned to India for his love for the country and to be closer to parents. Along with his corporate avatar, he follows his passion in agriculture, as founder of Umasankar Agri Pvt. Ltd (UAPL) Interestingly, the business plan for the agro- company had its genesis in a IIITH workshop on business development. “If I have the right credentials to go back happily to farming, as a returning NRI and IIITH and IIM-B graduate, I think I would set a very good example for both rural and urban youth to embrace cultivation”, he philosophizes.
“In corporate life, we could clearly see that the quality of education from IIITH set us apart; we were technically more sophisticated and our coding was a class apart. That’s when we realized the hard work that our professors had put in, to mold us. IIITH was a completely self-funded institute who had set themselves the highest standards, in terms of quality of intake and the depth of research. Since our fee structure was definitely on the higher side, we as alumni felt that anyone who deserved to be in IIITH, shouldn’t be deprived of the opportunity, for want of funds. Subhash Karri from the first batch, Vipul Kedia from the second and all of us in the third batch, felt the same. That was the background for setting up the Alumni fund, an initiative that was dear to me”.
It was a modest beginning and Prof. Jayanthi Sivaswamy was a beacon of support, creating a separate ledger for monies received. “We communicated a pay forward model, where beneficiaries of a fully-funded education would invest in one student after graduation and see them through college. At that time, the alumni were still trying to get a foothold in life and yet were helping others”, observes Sunkara.
The Institute is so ingrained in his blood that Sunkara has always seen himself as its brand ambassador. At Microsoft, he put together the framework and paperwork to register IIITH for the Matching program on the donations site. “I was just one document short which Vivek Mandava completed during his time there”, he adds.
“For anything related to new admissions, I make a pretty powerful pitch” discloses Sunkara who, as a registered mentor on the alumni foundation was requested by faculty to represent the alumni experience, to the first batch of SPEC, an alternative channel of admission for talented rural students. The presentation highlighted the sociographic diversity of the institute, the long-term benefits and how funding should be their least worry.
Sunkara reminisces that the Theory of Action was a humanities elective that fetched him the least grades, but had the greatest impact on him. ” In an IT-focused institute, my greatest learning was not about computer architecture or distributed database management systems, but the essence of Karmayoga, explained by an 84-year-old visiting professor”, observes Sunkara. “I can now appreciate what a great job our professors did, in coming across as approachable, but limiting their decisions to some tenets that they were firm on. Prof. Jayanthi Sivaswamy in particular, made a remarkable impression on me. She has the art of listening, with a smiling face that makes the student reach his own answers”.
“Visiting professors and batch mates are excellent excuses to catch up and I always facilitate those get-togethers”, he admits. “Our B. Tech batch has a very strong bond with some great memories. Of all the great things that happened to me, the most precious of all is knowing Deepthi, my wife and better half, who was my classmate in IIITH. Even today, when I’m meeting friends, there is a very high chance that they are my IIITH batchmates”.
Deepa Shailendra is a freelance writer for interior design publications; an irreverent blogger, consultant editor and author of two coffee table books. A social entrepreneur who believes that we are the harbingers of the transformation and can bring the change to better our world.
Next post